The Cairo Criminal Court announced on Sunday that the court would issue sentences against 213 alleged members of the militant group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis on September 2, on charges of assassinating policemen and bombing security facilities.
Egypt’s top prosecutor said that 213 alleged militants would be referred to trial in a statement on May 2014. He accused the defendants of carrying out 51 “acts of terrorism,” which have left 40 police personnel and 15 civilians dead.
Thirteen more defendants were added to the case in January.
Of the defendants, 143 are being tried in session. The rest are tried in absentia.
All defendants face charges of “establishing, leading and joining a terrorist group, assaulting citizens’ rights and freedoms, harming national unity and societal peace, spying for the Palestinian Hamas Movement, vandalizing state institutions, murder and possession of automatic weapons, ammunition and explosives.”
The defendants are also accused of complicity in an attempt on Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim’s life in September 2013.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
